Call for Papers

Citizenship Challenges for Children and Young People:
Barriers, Borders, and Bureaucracy in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

We invite submissions for a workshop exploring the urgent and complex theme of
citizenship challenges faced by children and young people, with a focus on the
structural and systemic barriers imposed by borders, bureaucracy, and legal
frameworks within a historical and contemporary perspective. As global mobility
increases and political landscapes become increasingly fragmented, the question of
who ‘belongs’—and under what conditions—has taken on renewed urgency. For many
children and young people, particularly those affected by migration, displacement,
statelessness, or restrictive nationality laws, the promise of citizenship remains
uncertain or entirely out of reach. This situation is, however, not new. Taking a longue
durée perspective, this project seeks to interrogate the lived realities of young people
navigating these challenges and to critically examine the legal, political, and bureaucratic
structures that have shaped – and continue to shape – their access to rights, identity, and
inclusion.

We are particularly interested in contributions that explore how children and young
people have experienced citizenship as a contested, incomplete, or precarious status in
the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This includes but is not limited to historical
and contemporary issues of documentation, asylum and immigration processes,
deportability, age assessments, education and healthcare access, international/intercountry adoptions, family reunification, and the intersection of citizenship status with race, gender, disability, and class. We also welcome papers
that foreground youth voices, agency, and activism in response to these challenges, as
well as research that critically examines the role of institutions—such as schools, welfare
systems, courts, and NGOs—in either reinforcing or resisting exclusionary practices past
and present.

The organisers encourage interdisciplinary and international perspectives, drawing from
fields such as childhood and youth studies, migration and refugee studies, law,
sociology, anthropology, education, history, and human rights. We invite scholars,
practitioners, activists, and those with lived experience to contribute empirical,
theoretical, or practice-based work that deepens our understanding of how citizenship
has constructed, denied, or reimagined in the lives of children and young people.

Potential themes include (but are not limited to):

• Statelessness and legal identity
• Bureaucratic violence and administrative exclusion
• Youth experiences in immigration and asylum systems
• Citizenship, education, and access to services
• Youth-led resistance and advocacy
• International Adoptions and Identity Documentation
• Intersectionality and compounded marginalisation
• Comparative or global perspectives on youth citizenship

We aim to create a platform that challenges dominant narratives and brings visibility to
often-overlooked experiences of children/minors and young people. Submissions should
engage critically with the politics of belonging and propose pathways toward more
inclusive and rights-based futures for children and young people.

If you are interested in participating, please follow the link below to submit your
abstract: https://nettskjema.no/a/534464

In terms of timeline, the process is as follows:

• Abstracts due on Monday, 20 October 2025.
• Draft papers due Friday, 31 March 2026.
• Two-day Workshop: Barcelona, Spain, 14-15 May 2026 (exact date TBC).
• Final versions of the papers due Friday, 17 July 2026.

Publication Plans: Depending on the number of submissions, the organisers/editors will
publish the papers in a special issue of a high impact journal or as an edited volume
(the organisers have already started a preliminary conversation about the project with
Routledge).

Workshop Travels/Accommodation Costs: The workshop where drafts will be
discussed is funded by the COST Association Action CA21120, HIDDEN – History of
Identity Documentation in European Nations: Citizenship, Nationality and Migration.
We will reimburse travel costs to Barcelona, and participants will receive a daily
allowance, as per COST rules on travel and reimbursement. Visa costs will also be
reimbursed (where applicable)¹ .

Organisers/Editors: Prof. Michael J. Geary (Norwegian University of Science and
Technology – NTNU), Dr Susan B. Rottmann (Özyeğin University), Dr Beatrice Scutaru
(Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), and Dr Aisling Shalvey (University College Cork).

Questions can be directed to either: michael.j.geary@ntnu.no or beatrice.scutaru@uab.cat

The PDF is available by clicking: Call for Papers

¹ Please note that funding for the workshop is subject to the approval of EU COST Action HIDDEN’s Year 4 budget.